Nothing beats a little ceremonial chest thumping and sending artillery flying toward the Iranians. What will this accomplish? Sadly not much except to help Joe look tough. Sorry, senile and tough. I wonder if he knows who we're firing at.
What the US needs to do is to immediately work with China to stop the massive flow of funds into Iran that pay for all this terrorist crap (& the associated weaponry that enables such). Ergo, have China threaten to buy all its oil from Uncle Sam if Iran doesn't knock off the debauchery.
Meanwhile, the world isn't getting any safer. Israel's overreaction and stupidity against 2 million mostly innocent Palestinians in Gaza (50% of which are children) is paying big dividends. Hamas isn't getting beaten and the whole mess escalates. Brilliant.
PS. It's not a total loss. Lockheed Martin, Raytheon, General Dynamics, and Northrup Grumman are all celebrating a late Xmas bonus this year. You know our top Military suppliers. God bless them!
U.S. Targets Iran’s Forces and Allies in Syria and Iraq
Biden administration escalates its military effort to deter militias after drone killed U.S. troops in Jordan
By Gordon Lubold & Michael R. Gordon, WSJ
Updated Feb. 2, 2024 6:16 pm ET
The U.S. launched airstrikes against Iranian-backed militias in Syria and Iraq in a bid to deter further attacks against U.S. forces in the region. A drone attack on Jan. 28 killed three American troops in Jordan.
The U.S. began a series of airstrikes on Iran’s paramilitary forces and militias that Tehran supports in Syria and Iraq on Friday, hitting more than 85 targets in a bid to deter further attacks against American forces after U.S. troops were killed in a drone strike in Jordan, the Pentagon said.
The U.S. said it targeted “Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) Quds Force and affiliated militia groups” that facilitated attacks on U.S. and coalition forces.
More than 125 precision munitions were used in the U.S. attacks, which struck command and control centers, intelligence centers, rockets and missile and drones storage facilities used by militias and their Iranian sponsors in seven locations, the Pentagon said.
The Biden administration has said the strikes, which included missions by long-range B-1 bombers flown from the U.S., could extend for days and would be coupled with economic sanctions and diplomacy that is aimed at safeguarding American forces—while not pushing the U.S. toward direct confrontation with Iran.
“Our response began today,” said President Biden Friday afternoon. “ It will continue at times and places of our choosing.”
The administration has signaled for days that it was preparing to take action in response to the drone strike on Sunday, which Middle East experts say has likely been used by Iran and the militias to try to disperse. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said Thursday that the U.S. can repeat its strikes as long as the threat warrants.
“They have a lot of capability, I have a lot more,” Austin said Thursday.
Jordanian aircraft are also slated to join in the operation and have been assigned targets. Jordan’s role is unusual and is intended to demonstrate solidarity with the U.S. following the drone strike on Tower 22, an outpost in Jordan near the Syrian border.
Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said Thursday, before the strikes, ‘They have a lot of capability, I have a lot more.’
Sunday’s deadly attack signaled an escalation in hostilities against U.S. forces in the region as it crossed the line into Jordan for the first time since the Oct. 7 Hamas assault on Israel and the ensuing war in Gaza.
The delay in launching U.S. strikes likely means that Tehran had time to move its personnel out of harm’s way, said Mick Mulroy, a former deputy assistant secretary of defense.
“Some will say [the U.S.] missed an opportunity to really inflict consequences on Iran,” Mulroy said. “We may however be able to reduce these Iranian proxies’ ability to attack our forces by striking these supply lines, storage facilities, and launch sites.”
Previous efforts by the Biden administration to deter Iran-backed groups have fallen short. In response to militant attacks that began in October, the U.S. initially confined its response to targets in Syria and then carried out a handful of limited retaliatory strikes in Iraq.
When the militia attacks continued and a U.S. service member was seriously wounded, Washington stepped up its response by carrying out a drone attack against a militia leader in Baghdad.
President Biden and first lady Jill Biden attended the dignified transfer ceremony for American soldiers killed in a drone attack by an Iranian-backed militia on a base in Jordan on Jan. 28.
The attacks by militias in Iraq and Syria continued, and now exceed 165 attacks with rockets, missiles, drones or mortars.
The U.S. has also struck targets belonging to Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen, continuing as recently as Thursday in an effort to degrade the group’s military capabilities—in response to its threat to merchant vessels and U.S. Navy ships in the region. Since Israel launched its war in Gaza, the Houthis have launched more than 30 attacks on commercial ships and military vessels, hampering passage through the Red Sea, a key shipping transit point.
The administration warned of retaliation immediately after it said a drone from an Iranian-backed group struck a housing barracks inside Tower 22, killing three Army reservists—Sgts. William Jerome Rivers, 46 years old, of Carrollton, Ga.; Kennedy Ladon Sanders, 24, of Waycross, Ga.; and Breonna Alexsondria Moffett, 23, of Savannah, Ga.—and injured more than 40 others. The Army promoted Sgts. Sanders and Moffett posthumously.
The remains of the three service members arrived at Dover Air Force Base hours before the strikes Friday and were met by Biden and first lady Jill Biden, as well as Austin. The strike marked the first deadly attack on U.S. forces after the attacks began in October.
The Biden administration has sought to demonstrate that its response wasn’t purely military. On Friday, it said that it was imposing sanctions against the head of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Cyber–Electronic Command, which the State Department said was responsible for cyberattacks on critical infrastructure in the U.S. and other countries, and five of its senior officers. But many experts say such actions are primarily symbolic.
How should the U.S. respond to the drone attacks? Join the conversation below.
The administration also said that it was imposing sanctions Friday on four entities it said were providing material and sensitive technology for Iran’s ballistic missile and drone programs.
Amid the regional turmoil, Secretary of State Antony Blinken is making his fifth trip to the region since the Gaza war began, with stops next week in Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Qatar, Israel and the West Bank.
The administration’s hope is that bringing an end to the Gaza conflict can eventually lead to a normalization of Israeli-Saudi ties, the creation of a Palestinian state and a rollback of Iran’s influence.
Blinken’s immediate goals are “efforts to reach an agreement that secures the release of all remaining hostages and includes a humanitarian pause that will allow for sustained, increased delivery of humanitarian assistance to civilians in Gaza,” State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said.
Jordan participated in airstrikes in the early phase of the campaign against Islamic State, which began in 2014, and lost a pilot, who was captured and executed by ISIS. But Jordanian aircraft haven’t previously bombed Iran-backed militias in an operation coordinated with the U.S., said Charles Lister of the Middle East Institute, a Washington think tank.
Of the seven facilities, four were in Syria and three were in Iraq, the U.S. said. The Iraqis have expressed frustration over strikes last month inside Iraq and have publicly said they are seeking a negotiated exit of the roughly 2,500 U.S. troops currently based there. That tension likely affected Washington’s calculation about what to hit Friday. U.S. defense officials determined the drone that killed the three service members Sunday was launched from Iraq.
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